London's Ugliest Buildings Of 2018

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Harry RosehillLondon's Ugliest Buildings Of 2018

Every year, six unlucky buildings in Britain vie for the Carbuncle Cup. The cup acts as architecture's wooden spoon, as voted for by readers of Building Design. This year — as is regularly the case — London dominates the shortlist, with half the nominees hailing from the capital. And here the ugly creatures are:

Lewisham Gateway, by PRP Architects

The redesign of one of London's most unpleasant gyratories hasn't gone down well at Building Design. The blandness of the four residential towers — two completed, another two still under construction — are the issue. In their words:

the towers stand like a sneering street gang of four upturned middle fingers dumbly primed to hurl all manner of townscape obscenities at their unsuspecting environs.

20 Ambleside Avenue, by Pace Jefford Moore Architects

Well at least you can't accuse this home in Streatham of being boring. BD wittily compare the house to:

the appearance of a red-faced child who has said something gauche in a room full of grownups.

We can't quite work out how something so extroverted made it past a local planning laws. It looks especially uncomfortable when juxtaposed with the mock tudor home next door.

Haydn Tower, by Rolfe Judd

Nine Elms is a Mecca for boring (and usually empty) towers, but this one has drawn particular ire from BD and its readers. What angers them so, are the multiple variations of discordant cladding. The sad truth of the matter? We'd hardly bat an eyelid at a building like this, because they're so common.

See all the nominees here, the winner will be announced on Wednesday 5 September.